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Cory Riverside Energy is one of the UK’s leading resource management, recycling, and energy recovery companies. We operate the largest Energy from Waste facility in the United Kingdom, located on the banks of the River Thames in London

Cory Riverside Energy:
key numbers

Less landfill

750000
Up to 750k tonnes of London's waste turned into electricity and
recycling product Find out more

Green highway

100000
Vehicle journeys saved using our carbon efficient fleet of tugs and barges to move waste along the Thames Find out more

Litter to light

160000
Households powered
with the c.525,000 MWh
energy we generate Find out more

Rubbish to road

200000
Up to 200k tonnes
of ash recycled as
construction aggregate Find out more

Bin to brick

10000
Up to 10k tonnes of Air Pollution Control Residue recycled to create building blocks for use in construction Find out more

Local disposal

149000
Tonnes of carbon
saved by not sending
waste to landfillFind out more

On arrival at 5 Riverside Resource Recovery, the waste containers are unloaded and placed on the back of dock tractors and trailers. These vehicles deliver the waste containers into the tipping hall of the plant where the waste is mixed and held before being incinerated to create electricity.

The incineration process creates a mix of Incinerator Bottom Ash and large objects such as stone, brick and metals. This is loaded into containers and transferred by barge for screening and recycling at 6 Tilbury. The bottom ash is used as a secondary aggregate in the construction of roads.

How our energy from waste plant works

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This interactive graphic explains how the UK’s largest Energy from Waste plant works. It has been open since 2012 and operating at full capacity since day one. We also consistently operate within all pollution limits and report on the plant’s emissions on a monthly basis here.

Hover over the numbers to find out more about each stage of the EfW process.

1

THE TIPPING HALL

In the tipping hall the waste is tipped into one of 12 tipping bays. Each bay has a hydraulically operated door designed to minimise noise and odour during tipping. Lights on each tipping bay indicate to the drivers of the vehicles which bay is available to receive waste.

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THE WASTE BUNKER

The tipping bays open into a waste bunker 30m deep, 61m long and 16m wide. It can hold up to 10,000 tonnes of waste, enough to fuel the plant at full capacity for five days.

Overhead waste cranes mix the waste to ensure that it maintains a similar heating value. Thermal Cameras detect any hot spots in the waste bunker, if the temperature of any hot spot exceeds 90ºC water cannons automatically operate.

The plant runs three combustion lines. The waste cranes feed each one in turn ensuring that the boilers have the required feedstock for 24 hour operation.

3

THE INCINERATOR

The waste travels down the chutes and onto a horizontal feeder table where hydraulically operated ram feeders push the waste onto the stoker grate.

The stoker grate is made up of alternate rows of fixed and moving cast steel bars that are arranged on a slope. The forward movement of these bars tumbles the waste slowly down the burning waste bed.

Primary heated combustion air is drawn from above the waste bunker and fed into the waste bed through holes in each stoker grate bar. This process dries the waste and provides the correct amount of air to allow good combustion of the waste.

4

THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER

Secondary swirling air is introduced above the stoker grate. This ensures that the gases given off by the burning waste are thoroughly mixed, resulting in a fully optimised combustion process and lower levels of toxicity in the gases leaving the combustion chamber. Ammonia is also injected into the flue gas to reduce the level of Nitrogen Oxides to the level demanded by the Environmental Permit.

5

ELECTRICITY GENERATION

Heat from the flue gases boils the water in the boiler tubes turning the water into steam in the Steam Drum, the steam is then super heated. This steam drives the turbine that in turn drives the generator, producing electricity.

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THE ASH BUNKER

The resulting burnt out product is known as incinerator bottom ash and this falls from the base of the grate into a quench bath. Ash is collected in an Ash Bunker and loaded onto trucks by cranes and hoppers. Any oversized metal or other objects are removed and recycled and the remainder is sent to our partner plant at Tilbury Docks for processing and recycling into aggregate that is primarily used by the road building industry.

7

MANAGING THE FLUE GASES

Flue gases leave the boiler and pass into a reactor tower where hydrated lime, powdered activated carbon and water are injected into the swirling gas flow. These help neutralise acids and capture heavy metal particles.

8

FILTERING THE FLUE GASES

Gases from the reactor tower are drawn into one of three fabric bag filters. These filters are each made from 2,048 6m long cylindrical fibre bags on steel wire cages. The clean gases pass through the filters and the Air Pollution Control Residue (APCR) collects on the outer surface of the bags.

Compressed air pulses shake off the APCR into silos. The APCR is removed from the site by road tanker where it is recycled into cinder blocks for use by the construction trade.

9

FLUE GAS FLOW

Flue Gas is drawn through the entire process by Induced Draft Fans. The clean hot gas from the Fabric Filter is passed through a silencer and a heat exchanger that heats feed water to provide an efficient process.

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THE COOLING STACK

Cooled gas is forced up an 85 metre high stack where it is discharged into atmosphere. Emissions equipment continually monitors these emissions ensuring that our energy from waste plant stays within the limits set down in our environmental permit.

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Cory Riverside Energy is the trading name for each of the Cory Riverside Energy Group of companies comprising:
Cory Environmental Holdings Limited. Registered company number 5360864 and its subsidiaries;

Cory Riverside (Holdings) Limited. Registered company number 6505376 and its subsidiaries;